“We believe that transparency in government activities leads to reduced corruption, better government and stronger democracies. All governments can benefit from increased scrutiny by the world community, as well as their own people. We believe this scrutiny requires information. Historically that information has been costly – in terms of human life and human rights. But with technological advances – the internet, and cryptography – the risks of …

“Everyone needs to be prepared. The speakers, the moderators and even the audience. The speakers must know what they really want to say, the moderators must ensure a quick change between speakers and they need to set everything up so there’s no pause … the audience must be willing to listen and to forgive possible errors.”

Do you have something to say at the 25C3? Can you say it in 5 minutes or less? Give a lightning talk! These speaker-driven, self organizing collections of short presentations are a great way to get a quick taste of a lot of wonderful topics usually hidden from mainstream …

Christian Heller aka plomlompom self-identifies as an identity and meme machine currently living the future in Berlin so you don’t have to.

His talk Embracing Post-Privacy: Optimism towards a future where there is “Nothing to hide” ponders opportunities of a world we might live in all too soon. The loss of privacy we decry now may very well transform into something very utopian: A society where the borders of “public” and “private” life are blurring and human identity itself must be redefined.

Born and raised in East Berlin, Christian’s life as a media person started early when he became a …

_“Once upon a time, there were two young hackers attending HAL. They brought along their phone switch. As occupants of neighboring tents realized they could participate in yet another means of communication, the phone network expanded rapidly.

Whoever thought hackers were socially isolated nerds would have been contradicted instantly at this point. From here on, numerous European hacker gatherings have benefited from a reliable phone network, both for fun and event organization.”

How can you stay in contact with your friends at the 25C3? Get in touch with a project or workshop? Call back …

The congress is a truly interactive event. You don’t attend the congress, you experience it. Everyone who attends can do something to make it an incredible experience. You can host a workshop, help volunteer, trade knowledge in the Hackcenter or jump into an insanely cool conversation in the Hideout Lounge. Even though we’re still a few weeks out, there are lots of ways you can participate before the congress to make it truly epic!

The 25C3 is expected to have an unprecedented number of attendees who have never been to Berlin, Germany or even Europe! Berliners and congress veterans, we need …

“The first time I found my father’s porn I was trying to read his back issues of Mother Earth News. One day I did this while my mother was doing laundry…I was eight or nine years old.”

Rose White wants to find your porn stash. She is trying to unearth how we collect, store, organize (and hide) our collections, asking what these troves say about us.

“I think I was born a little socially miswired. I never quite understood why there should be anything wrong with talking about sex. In fourth grade I got in trouble at school for explaining to the other kids how human reproduction worked. I read it …

Looking at the schedule, you can see the 25C3 has an incredible lineup of talks on a wide range of topics from wearable computing to preserving fictional former Soviet Republics. (Yes, there’s even a talk on pornography.)

Yet talks are hardly the only thing going on at the 25C3. In addition to wonderful displays of Art & Beauty, there’s going to be lots of making going on! At the 25C3, everyone from soldering masters to hardware hacking virgins will be able to build projects of all shapes, sizes and complexity.

Even if you’ve never touched a soldering iron, you can drop by the Hardware …

There is yet another update on the conference talks schedule. Check it out.

Do you really have nothing to hide? Prove it.

CCC Sputnik, SocioPatterns.org, and the OpenAMD project from 2600‘s The Last Hope are teaming up to provide a real mass surveillance experience at the 25C3. What are the problems and possibilities behind these panopticon dreams of certain politicians? For only 10 EUR you can find out!

Using RFID technology, congress attendees can elect to participate in a massive human tracking network. Building on the success of previous efforts with Sputnik at 24c3, and at the 2007 CCC camp, this year’s project will use advanced visualization to allow you to see …

The registration for your personal phone number at the 25C3 is now up and running. Excerpt from the eventphone page:

If you want to create a phone number for one of the upcoming events, you have to sign up first and give yourself a username.
You will get an email to confirm your account. Then you can choose a phone number for your cordless phone.
That is all you need to phone other people at the event for free. You can make friends or retrieve them, when they got spread over the whole area.
If you already have an account for eventphone.de you only have to click login.

Currently you can create …

Now is the time to find a place to stay at the 25C3. Fortunately, you still have a lot of good options left!

If you’re on a tight budget, The Gym is the most affordable place to stay for the congress. It is available from the 26th to the 31st and is only 5 Euros a night! Be sure to get your tickets at the main cash desk at the BCC. Tickets go fast. Without a ticket, you won’t get a place to sleep at the gym.

If the gym is not your style, you could also check out housing offers on the 25C3 wiki. If you have some space to spare, why not make an offer to help a fellow hacker? Lots of great …

We have a huge problem: Couches. We need couches for the 25C3. The more the better. Everybody loves to sit on a sofa with his computer and there can’t be enough couches for all the computers.

But organizing couches is hard work. Buying them on the internet, scheduling the pickup with the former owners, finding nerds who are willing and able (!) to lift and carry them three flights down, storing them, … you get the picture.

Here is your chance to contribute: Bring your own sofa. If your sofa is somewhere in Berlin we can pick it up and bring it to our storehouse. After the 25C3 we take care of …